Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch - Encaustic Mixed Media: Innovative Techniques and Surfaces for Working With Wax

The experimentation Ive engaged in over the past year and a half has expanded my view of encaustics possibilities and enlightened me to a whole new way of thinking about the wax. Abolished are any remnants of cant, dont or wont work. In their place, I now say, Wow, how amazing, and Can you believe how beautiful this is? Encaustic, I can say with conviction, marries beautifully with everything I put into, on, below, within and alongside it. The possibilitiesOh, the joy!are endless. Youll never hear me say no in encaustic. There is no medium, technique, product, doodad or possibility that I would refuse to try with encaustic! I didnt begin this way; I followed the rules, doing what was typically and historically done with encaustic.

This actually provided me with a vital foundation; to be able to work with and in something, it helps to know what its supposed to do and how it works. I played by the rules for a good year, and then I started to pushand was amazed at how far the medium could go. I finally came to the same place Id been with my mixed-media paintings for the past decade: complete abandon and experimentation! So in this second book, Encaustic Mixed Media, I bring you all the trials (leaving out the tribulations) of my indulgent time in the wax. My goal is to highlight the versatility of the wax and the unending possibilities for other media in encaustic painting. You can use this book in much the same way the first book was designed; treat yourself to each project, one by one, and experience how your encaustic painting can change by trying out all the techniques. Or open to a project that speaks to you and play in it to your hearts content.

With this book, Ive just touched the surface of all the possibilities in wax. I know there are more and that each of you delving into this book will find them and expand yet further the opportunities for beeswax to take art to the next level. I encourage you: Delve! Expand! Take everything to the next leveland share with the world. Jump in! And again, as always, I invite you to keep in touch; contact me with questions, illuminations, concerns and joyous breakthroughs. Visit me at www.pbsartist.com or www.gingerfetish.blogspot.com. I welcome and look forward to hearing from everyone.

Blessings! The principle goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have donemen who are creative, inventive and discoverers.